Dear Wide Bay Members,
The 2023 season has been one of success, transformation, challenge, and growth for the region, with our football community remaining steadfast in ensuring local football flourishes.
From a 20-penalty shoot-out victory for the CommBank Matildas at Brisbane Stadium, to another successful Finals Football celebration at Martens Oval, the year has been packed with success on every field.
FIFA Women’s World Cup Fever
The success of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ and the CommBank Matildas, who are continuing to inspire a new generation of players across both social and competitive formats of the game, has already delivered an increase in demand for social programs and events for women and girls ahead of the 2024 season. Based on this, Football Queensland is already reserving space for new leagues and products.
It was amazing to see the excitement the World Cup drummed up, not only in our football circles but amongst the broader community who got around the Tillies and supported their campaign. Thank you to the local sports clubs and football clubs for collaborating with Football Queensland to host public viewing sessions and turn the region green and gold.
With the implementation of Girls United Social Sessions and Girls-Only MiniRoos Leagues in Fraser Coast for 2024, we are continuing to work towards our statewide target of 50/50 gender parity in participation by 2027.
Regional & State Award Winners
It is always our privilege to honour local volunteers, clubs and teams with Regional Awards on Grand Final night, or at their clubs in front of a home crowd. Wide Bay had another great year at the 2023 Football in Queensland Awards Night. Congratulations again to all those who were recipients of Regional Awards on their outstanding achievements, and a special acknowledgment to our State Award Winner Brett Muller for the Protect Our Game Award, and to our state finalists, Granville FC’s Under 14 – Community Junior Team, United Warriors Div 1 Women – Community Senior Team, Justine Ohl – Volunteer of the Year, Kim Neilsen – Service to Football Platinum, and Allen Ascough – Service to Football Gold.
Events in the Wide Bay
The Fraser Coast Sports Precinct again played host to our next generation of talent in 2023, with the FQ Academy Regional Carnival starring Central Coast, Wide Bay and Sunshine Coast teams who played one another across a March Sunday afternoon with the opportunity to be identified by the FQ Technical staff. The FQPL Women’s Intercity Cup starring the 2022 Teams of the Season was held in the afternoon, with Wide Bay securing a convincing win. We look forward to taking the men’s and women’s Intercity Cup matches to Marley Brown Oval for the 2024 edition.
The Brisbane Roar also returned to the Fraser Coast Sports Precinct for a day packed with football, including Street Soccer for our FQ Academy teams, a MiniRoos clinic for the young ones, and player signing sessions. The Roar engaged with local clubs and Lonsdale House during the week-long training camp and topped it off with a fixture vs the Wide Bay Select Team, led by FQ’s Alec Wilson, Gareth Thomson and supported by Chris Phillips as team manager. It was great to see new COO Zac Anderson address the crowd and watch the match alongside fans and everyone’s favourite mascot, Roarie.
Wide Bay’s Presence Expanding Across the State
Our FQ Academy Teams performed exceptionally at their respective carnivals and tournaments during the season, held in Rockhampton, Mackay, Sunshine Coast and Brisbane.
We saw a record number of players selected for state teams, including Slater Avenell, Xavier Ulbl, Elias D’Amico, Ethan Bailey, Liam Hedges, Zayde Kitching, Finnlay Patterson, Bowie Young, Cohen Palmer and Riley McLeod in the Boys teams, and Tayissa Cory, Skye Cox, Caitlin McAskill, Layla Fulton, Lilliana Brilliante, Charlotte Whalley and Deia Raxach in the Girls teams.
We wished the Across the Waves FQPL Men’s team luck as they played off in the Mitre FQPL Champions League against Clinton FC in a home-and-away two-legged round to kick off the tournament. Every round they put on a show, and scored more and more goals as they advanced all the way through to the Final. We look forward to seeing Waves return to the statewide tournament next year, given their FQPL League win again in 2023, and also look forward to seeing the Fraser Flames Women play off against a new counterpart to the competition, Bluebirds United from Rockhampton.
Wide Bay Referee Success
This year we recorded a massive increase in junior referees thanks to the mentorship from our Coaching Development Officers and Support Officers Kris Cobbin and Tammy Maatta.
The Mitre FQPL Champions League provides opportunity for our referees who are seeking an avenue for challenge and development, as taken up by Cody Schiemann, Aswin Raj and Ari Maatta this year, with the support of referees from across other regional areas.
Further, we acknowledge and congratulate our officials appointed to the big dance, the FQPL Finals: Cody Schiemann, Aswin Raj, Ari Maatta, Jessica Rooimans, Taylor Stumer and Sam Roberts, and supported by Phil Townsend and Dylan Atkinson as fourth officials.
Implementing Improved Operating Systems
Following the launch of Squadi, over 150,000 users have been onboarded within the platform. The team at both World Sport Action and Football Queensland have been actively updating the platform in real time, thanks to feedback from users internally and externally, to ensure the platform is as convenient, effective, and user-friendly as possible.
With 2024 registrations live and available for those clubs who wish to open them, we are pleased to be tracking months ahead of the usual schedule to allow clubs to be as prepared for the new season as possible.
Club administrators will be able to attend an in-person workshop in early 2024 in addition to our already occurring online webinars to continue to familiarize themselves with the new features of the platform and use it to its full potential, including canteen functionality, ticket sales and shop features.
On behalf of the Football Queensland Wide Bay team we’d like to thank you for your passion, patience, support and collaboration through the season, in both the busier, more testing times and during the fun and exciting times.
We’ve been able to celebrate so much in 2023, and with a successful ‘off-season’ used to enhance and update process and systems, we look forward to improving year on year to deliver football in more formats to engage more participants.
Wishing you a safe and joyful holiday period, and looking forward to seeing you again in 2024 as we return for an even bigger year of football.
